Runaway

Directed by Michael Crichton, Runaway casts Tom Selleck as futuristic cop Jack Ramsay and follows him as he sets out to find and take down a vicious sociopath (Gene Simmons’ Charles Luther) armed with heat-seeking bullets and small robotic assassins. Filmmaker Crichton, working from his own screenplay, delivers a briskly-paced thriller that’s been packed with attention-grabbing sequences and action interludes, and it’s clear, certainly, that the movie benefits quite substantially from its periodically (and impressively) prescient approach to its sci-fi tech. (The “floater cameras” are essentially drones, for example.) Runaway‘s perpetually watchable atmosphere is heightened by the stirring work of its actors, and although Selleck is predictably solid here, Simmons’ memorably menacing turn as the mustache-twirling villain remains an obvious highlight from start to finish. By the time the silly yet satisfying finale rolls around, Runaway has confirmed its place as a better-than-average effort from a somewhat hit-and-miss filmmaker – with the ongoing inclusion of entertainingly broad elements, including POV shots of Luther’s aforementioned heat-seeking bullets, compensating for a handful of narrative lulls. (The romantic subplot doesn’t add much to the picture’s overall effect, to be sure.)

*** out of ****